Backward Glances: Farm wife with a shotgun captures Gambles burglar

Saturday

• When three teenagers broke into the Gambles store in Danube and escaped with a carload of loot, they were stopped by law enforcement by a cornfield north of Redwood Falls.

The first teen was captured in the field, and the second showed up at the Redwood County Sheriff’s Department the next day with his girlfriend to turn himself in. The third boy was captured at the David Hertle farm when he showed up to ask for a ride to town, and was met at the front door by Mrs. Hertle holding a shotgun.

• Sadie Morse, age 103, recalled her courtship and marriage 81 years previously, in 1887.

• Because of recent construction projects and faculty raises, the Redwood Falls School District’s yearly budget exceeded $1 million for the first time.

• The Redwood County Board approved plans for Farmers Union Marketing and Processing Company’s proposed new rendering plant northwest of North Redwood.

• Alycen Bloedow was crowned the 1968 Redwood Falls High School Homecoming Queen.

• Redwood Falls service club women took part in a Gazette presidential election straw poll that showed they preferred Republican Richard Nixon over Democrat Hubert Humphrey 89-15.

• John Hoepner of Redwood Falls happened to be in Detroit when the Tigers came home from the World Series, and he reported the celebration was larger than that held to mark the end of World War II.

25 years ago

October 1993

• With the federal government now regulating cable TV services, Redwood Falls residents learned that basic cable (12 channels), would cost $6.99 per month, while Cablevision service (the basic 12, plus another 20 including MTV, Discovery, etc.) would cost $20.45 per month.

• Shirley Holt of Belview worked part-time as a nurse at the Parkview Nursing Home despite having multiple sclerosis herself and needing to get around in a motorized wheelchair.

10 years ago

October 2008

• A remote controlled robotic spray cleaner was used to give the Redwood Falls water tower a clean-up, with the operator sitting 250 feet below as he cleaned.

• Actor Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls Wilder on the Little House on the Prairie TV show in the 1970s, quietly visited the real life Walnut Grove for a day, and she spent some time at the Ingalls family’s real-life farm site.

• North Ambulance, based in Redwood Falls, said its staff had made about 1,200 calls in the previous year.

• Polish farmer Krzysztof Dzienniak passed through Redwood Falls as part of his year-long fundraiser to buy medical supplies for his village back home, while visiting all 48 continental United States on a motor scooter.

• Nearly 13 months after a statewide smoking ban was enforced, area bars and restaurants said it had had nearly no effect on their businesses at all.

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